Altingiaceae

My postdoctoral experience was at the Field Museum in Chicago where I held a Boyd Fellowship and worked with Jun Wen and Jenny McElwain on the disjunct family Altingiaceae. This work grew out of research on Miocene fossil fruits in collaboration with Kathleen Pigg at Arizona State University. We surveyed the anatomy, morphology and micromorphology of Liquidambar and Altingia, and demonstrated differences in rates of evolution and morphological convergence suggesting complex patterns of diversification at several different phylogenetic levels, and evidence for morphological stasis. Our results demonstrate biogeographic migrations of Altingiaceae across both the Bering and North Atlantic Land Bridges. I also completed a taxonomic synopsis including nine new combinations and their circumscription for Altingiaceae while at UAF in 2013.